Working at height is one of the biggest safety issues in the construction industry today. Every year, there are over 11,000 reported accidents, most of which are at heights of less than two metres.

The rail industry is no exception to these grim statistics, although it is working hard to reduce the problem. Companies such as Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services are grasping the nettle and have banned the use of ladders on sites.

This should remove a lot of the ladder-related accidents, but then how do they cope when working at height seems inevitable?

One answer is to use safer, but more expensive, equipment. Cherry-pickers and access platforms can take the place of ladders, but they are costly and time-consuming to use.

Lateral thinking

The other solution is to think laterally, and that is just what Balfour Beatty has done. Developing an initiative they have called “Feet On The Ground”, the intention is to make all work possible from ground level.

Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services have a fleet of 2,500 accommodation cabins of various designs that they deliver to work sites all over the country.

Each one has four lifting eyes on top, and previously an operator needed to go onto the roof of the cabin to attach the lifting chains or strops to each eye. He had to get out ladders, don his anti-fall protective harness, find someone to foot the ladder, and then go up and attach the lifting devices. Time consuming, costly, and inherently risky.

As a solution, various low-level lifting eyes and even sliding eyes were tested, but none were totally satisfactory. So, working with Dave Thompson of Thompson Engineering, Balfour Beatty developed its own solution – Lo-Loc.

This is a clamp that can be attached to a cabin’s conventional eyes, and to the lifting straps, all from ground level.

How does it work?

First the strap is attached to a Lo-Loc using a conventional shackle. Then a specially developed tool with a long handle is attached to the Lo-Loc and clamped into place.

The operator then lifts the Lo-Loc up to roof level using the pole-like handle and, from the ground, clips it onto the lifting eye. A simple twist of the tool’s handle disconnects it from the clamp, and the Lo-Loc is installed. Do that three more times and the cabin is ready to lift.

Removal of the clamps is a reversal of the installation procedure. The head of the tool tilts, so it can be attached to Lo-Loc clamps that have toppled sideways and are not sitting vertically, and then the device is unclipped from the lifting eye and returned to low level.

The whole process is simple – and quick! Estimates are that using Lo-Loc the process of lifting a cabin into position is 30 minutes quicker than when using old-fashioned ladders, and the operator’s feet never leave the ground!

A solution this neat must be expensive, and in a way it is. Four clamps, a tool, and an extension handle to reach the roofs of cabins still on the back of a lorry, cost around £1000.

However, if every lift saves 30 minutes, which at £50 an hour is £25 saved every time, then in 40 lifts the system is paid for. After that it makes a profit.

In this case, improved safety is better, quicker, and cheaper. So now there can be no excuses….

For more than 20 years Cosalt has been designing, manufacturing and supplying safety clothing to the UK rail industry.

Today, over 30,000 rail personnel wear Cosalt personal protective equipment (PPE) and workwear to keep them safe, dry, warm and comfortable at work.

The company’s client list reads like a who’s who of the rail infrastructure business and includes Network Rail, Babcock Rail and Bombardier.

Cosalt has a knack of maintaining long-term relationships with key customers to the benefit of both parties.

Underpinning Cosalt’s success and longevity is the company’s focus on producing garments that are not only fit for purpose but also surpass legislative requirements without compromising on wearer comfort and fit.

Cosalt’s strengths run deeper than their ability to design and develop market-leading products. The company’s managed service option is a turnkey solution that takes safety to a new level.

Cosalt will take on the responsibility for laundering and maintaining the garments and making sure they comply with health and safety standards.

They will maintain the exacting quality control and product management procedures that allow every garment to be tracked and traced and finally decommissioned.

As part of this managed service offering, Cosalt has spent in excess of £800,000 on IT since 2008 to create an advanced paperless system that can integrate seamlessly with a customer’s own enterprise, resource and planning systems.

This provides access to real time information on procurement requests, orders placed, ongoing support issues, invoices, payments and key performance indicator reports.

Customers are able to take decisions based on clear, concise up-to-date information.

The system is helping to improve safety, increase efficiency and drive down overhead costs.

Every item that leaves Cosalt’s production line is given a unique barcode, and from there it is tracked for the rest of its life.

Cosalt can see which garments are allocated to which individuals, how many times these products have been laundered and how many times they have been replaced or repaired.

Hydrex is investing in the latest technology and the Safely Home initiative to improve safety awareness among its employees and the wider rail industry.

Says Andy Crago, Safety and Compliance Director, “Hydrex has always seen itself as the leading safety advocate in the rail plant hire market. The Safely Home initiative reinforces that strategy.

“Safely Home is an exercise in raising safety awareness across our employee base and the wider rail community. We have already invested extensively in the training and development of our operational employees.

“Safely Home reminds everyone of one simple message: the personal role they play in maintaining a safe working environment is crucial.

“The aim is to get everyone safely home at the end of the working day.”

Hydrex Rail is the largest provider of road/rail plant solutions to the UK rail industry. It formed its Rail Division in 1993. Safety, reliable delivery and investment are the hallmarks of Hydrex’s strategy for 2011 and beyond.

“The railway of 2011 needs road/rail partners who focus on safety, improving their delivery performance whilst investing in their fleet. Driving efficiency in the provision of plant services is a pre-requisite requirement of all contractors,” says Carl D’Ammassa, Hydrex’s Chief Executive Officer.

A fresh approach

Hydrex has gone through significant change since 2010. The aim is to deliver efficiency savings and offer a fresh approach to customer needs.

“We are building a culture at Hydrex that is based on greater collaboration with our clients; one where our people spend more time listening to what our client needs rather than putting forward what we think they need,” Mr D’Ammassa says.

Safely Home is closely aligned with Hydrex’s Behavioural Safety Programme. There is a broad recognition that getting it right every time is difficult, particularly when dealing with almost 1,000 employees.

However the Hydrex team believes that providing additional focus and driving incremental improvement will enhance a wider safety culture.

This move is facilitated by Hydrex’s active membership within industry groups such as ISLG – Infrastructure Safety Liaison Group; OFG – (Rail) Operations Focus Group; RIAG – Railway Infrastructure Assurance Group; RIEF – Rail Infrastructure Environment Forum and the M&EE – Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

“Investing in safety solutions is at the forefront of our mind,” continues Andy Crago.

“We have led the way with the introduction of mobile telecoms in machine cabs to improve exclusion zone enforcement.

“In addition, we are making significant investment in our fleet this year both in new equipment and upgrades to existing machines. We have committed £6m to this programme.”

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is just what it says.

It is the front line defence against injury for any railway worker, and Network Rail is quite rightly very strict in making sure that all personnel on their construction sites are properly kitted out.

It applies to everyone, even to RailStaff reporters.

That’s why on every site, whether you are a Network Rail employee or work for a sub-contractor, the minimum standards have to be met.

Orange high-viz all over, and that orange colour is to a laid down standard.

Boots with protective soles as well as toecaps, hard hats (blue or white), eye protection (to a standard), gloves (to another standard) – the list is quite long and everyone who works on the railways is familiar with it.

Even on non-railway building sites (inside the shopping centre at Birmingham New Street Station for example) the same standards are rigorously enforced.

So it comes as a surprise to learn that one group of construction workers go to work in trainers! Why is this? Do they have bad feet? Or are they just breaking the rules?

The answer is neither. They are the highly skilled men and women who are building the new roof for the Western Concourse at King’s Cross.

An elegant domed structure that will be three times the size of the current concourse, it forms part of the £400 million reconstruction of the famous London terminus.

The roof of the new concourse has a glass and aluminium cladding and heavy boots would damage the surface.

So although they are all roped on for safety, and have to comply with the other PPE requirements, they are ‘excused boots’!

Dan Hegarty of Express Medicals discusses Wellbeing

What is wellbeing and is it relevant to companies and their employees?

Most adults have an in-built understanding of what needs to be done to ensure that a child has a feeling of wellbeing.

I asked some of our own staff about children and wellbeing. Here are a selection of responses:

• ‘Children need nourishment. Good wholesome food’
• ‘They must get lots of stimulation, play, learning, sports and exercise’
• ‘You must challenge their minds through puzzles, quizzes and learning’
• ‘Kids must get regular sleep’
• ‘Children need lots of affection’
• ‘Kids need loads of praise. They need to feel special’
• ‘They must have friends and play-mates. Then they can have fun and learn how to mixshare and give-and-take’.

Here are a couple of dictionary definitions of wellbeing:

Wellbeing is a contented state of being happy, healthy and prosperous. Wellbeing is a satisfactory state that someone or something should be in that involves such things as being happy, healthy, safe and having enough money to gain peace.

I asked staff what wellbeing meant to them. A common theme seems to be ‘It’s about me!’ Here’s what they said:

‘Wellbeing means to me looking after the physical and mental health of individual people’.

‘Wellbeing means the general health of somebody. It is their physical and mental health’.

‘Wellbeing signifies that you feel good about yourself. It is about being contented with the quality of your own life’.

‘Wellbeing means thinking about the things that affect an individual in his or her life. People need to be happy at home and work. They need happy social lives’.

Workers require to be nurtured. Whilst we may need to work under contracts and within various boundaries we all share core human needs. Productive employees are likely to have a sense of wellbeing.

It’s good to feel emotionally contented, be physically fit, to enjoy good relationships with colleagues, family and friends. Fun and laughter are essential. Satisfaction, stimulation and fulfillment from work is important.

Being valued by colleagues and friends can be just as important as pay and conditions.

A good employer understands the significance of wellbeing. All employees wish to feel safe, secure and valued. If the workforce has a feel good factor about it, the energy of the company is all the greater – a net contributor to bottom line success.

By implementing a programme of wellbeing services senior management sends a clear message that the workforce is valued by the bosses.

For details of Express Medical’s Wellbeing Services call 020 7500 6901.